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Last month I took a train vacation--Eugene--Portland--Chicago--Los Angles--Eugene and it was my first time at LAX. I loved the station but I was wondering if the procedure that day was standard. They checked the ticket and ID of EVERY passenger on every train. Standing in line for over an hour waiting to board. Long lines and ONE person doing the checking. Thats just the kind of thing that got me off planes.
Posts: 139 | From: myrtle creek oregon | Registered: Jul 2006
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If I am understanding your itinerary correctly, you were at Los Angeles in order to take train #14, the Coast Starlight. Is that correct? If so, Amtrak has been requiring passengers to "check in" for quite some time now. It seems a little silly to me, and when I asked "Why?", I was told that Homeland Security requires this. However, when asking Amtrak employees questions like these, you will usually get a different response from every person you ask.
The check-in process is not really "checking in" as the term is used in the airline industry. All you do is go up to the customer service counter, show your ticket and ID with matching name, and they stamp your ticket with "ID CHECKED". That's it---piece of cake. Of course, at all of the stations along the route of the Coast Starlight, I don't think your ID is checked at ANY of them. Why Los Angeles? Who knows----welcome to AmTravel. :-)
I do think that they should improve this process a little bit, though. It's usually that one woman working by herself behind a counter with a LONGGGGG line of people waiting to get a stamp on their ticket. Then when people get up to the counter, they have no clue what to do. I was just at LAX yesterday morning checking in to train #14 and I saw the same thing that I've seen a million times. People get to the counter and the woman always says, "Ticket and ID", and people's responses range from things such as, "Oh, you need my ticket? My husband has that and he's in the bathroom", or, "My ID? Why do you need my ID? It's in my other bag at the other end of the station". Because of the stupid public that has NO CLUE how to travel, the line often gets long because people are generally stupid. I know, I know....strong comment to make. But travel seems to bring out the stupidity in lots of people. When I was there yesterday, I showed her my ID and ticket in one motion, got the stamp, and was at the counter for maybe 20 seconds. Others spend 5 and 10 minutes there doing God knows what! It's very frustrating. There should be a sign telling people what to do and what to have ready. The PA announcements at LAX are okay, but depending on which part of the station you are in you may only hear a loud garbled echo that is not easily understood. I understand your frustration!
Posts: 2355 | From: Pleasanton, CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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Yes I was boarding Train #14 and it was the wonderful experience I thought it would be once I left LAX. This September I was planning a Eug-LAX round trip, but I think I will get off in Simi Valley and stay the night instead.
Posts: 139 | From: myrtle creek oregon | Registered: Jul 2006
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FWIW, I got my ticket and ID checked boarding a train in Boston for Mystic, CT. Sure slowed down things on the platform.
A few weeks ago I picked up a Vancouver-Seattle bus ticket at the Amtrak station in Glenview, Ill., and had to show my passport (now required for US citizens returning from Canada).
None of this silliness will slow down a dedicated member of Al Qaeda, but federal bureaucracies need to flex their muscles.
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
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You DO NOT HAVE to wait in line at LA Union Station! Just hang out anywhere in the station. When they make an announcement about which track your train is on, just go for it. You can even hang out up on the platform and watch the train back in. Just don't get in the way of the carts or equipment.
I NEVER wait in line, especially for the Surfliners. Either I know which track it's on (the Surfliners always use tracks 9-12) or I do my trick described above. As soon as they make the announcement about the track, I make a run for it, and get on board before the masses start boarding. That way you can pick out the perfect seat.
The worst that will happen is the conductor will ask for your ID while on board.
Remember, this is a secret! Don't spoil it for everyone!
Posts: 286 | From: Knee deep in the retention tank | Registered: Jan 2006
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You have to show your ID to get on in a train? In Italy you don't have to show nothing! I think that this is the best thing of train... you don't spare your time in stupid check-in procedure...
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Neither did we in the US for years and years. I am of the suspicion that this is as much as anything an idea promoted by the airlines so the "you don'thave to deal with the security hassles" advantages of taking a train will be killed. But then I always get paranoid when somebody comes up with a way to fix, at major incovenience, a problem you did not even know you had.
Posts: 2808 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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Paul - your "trick" has usually worked for me at LAUS, however, now and then, as soon as you walk through those doors which lead to the track concourse, there may be someone there telling you to go back inside and get in line -- I guess it depends on what door you go out, what day of the week it is, and whether you can be "sneaky" and act "nonchalant" about it...
Let me add that your "trick" works much better in LAUS than say Chicago or PHL or NYP!!!
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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But if you bypass the line to get your ID checked and your ticket stamped, won't they notice this when you board the train that the stamp is missing? I've always known not to line up with everyone else at the "Coast Starlight" line inside of LAX Union Station, and instead I just walk to the train myself at my leisure. I try to get ahead of the crowd, or wait a long time for everyone to board.....especially with groups of people who are older. They tend to take a VERY long time to board the trains when figuring out where to put their bags, walking upstairs in the Superliner cars can take 10 minutes, then they usually walk the WRONG way down the aisle towards their room. It's much easier to let them all go fumble around for 20 minutes or so, then I'll stroll out there and hop on.
Posts: 2355 | From: Pleasanton, CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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I was in Los Angeles last December and heard the announcement about ID check for #4. I just ignored it and went down the long tunnel to the track entrance. Nobody demanded to see my ticket and when I boarded my sleeper no one was there so I just got on. Eventually, after the train departed, the conductor lifted my ticket making no comment about the lack of ID check. Some trains have a sleeping car check-in such as #14, but again simply ignore it. I'm a first-class passenger and I do not stand in lines. If somebody wants to see my ID they came come to me, I will not line up to show someone a piece of paper. Fortunately I've given up flying so I don't have to put up with that horror at the airport.
Regarding passports to Canada, currently if you travel overland neither Canadian nor U.S. citizens require a passport. So far this only applies to air and sea passengers.
Posts: 524 | From: Toronto Ont. Canada | Registered: Mar 2001
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Not that I think it is likely that an LD train would be a desirable terrorist/nutcase target, but maybe discussion of how to circumvent security on a public forum is not, in general, a good idea?
As a rail traveler who is very impatient about lines, I do appreciate these tips though. By knowing my way around superliners and stations, I have often been greeted by a car attendant with the question "How did you get in here already?"
Posts: 1572 | From: St. Paul, MN | Registered: Dec 2002
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I honestly dont believe any of these procedures could beat a determined enemy, and I'm nearly certain they arent monitoring railforum. I'm ready to do whatever it takes to defeat these people however I must chuckle at the measures we are taking.
Posts: 139 | From: myrtle creek oregon | Registered: Jul 2006
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Royal Train you amaze me!! Do you think that if there were terrorists they would only target coaches. What do you do in the diner if there is a wait for tables? I guess that we think differently because I think being a sleeper passenger gives me the right to use a room rather than share with 70 others, coffee in my car and paid for meals.that's it. If you take a roomette what do you do if all the bathrooms are filled?
Posts: 1577 | From: virginia | Registered: Jun 2005
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Train Lady. One of the joys of travelling first class is to avoid the travails of the economy class passenger. Whether it is by air, rail or sea traditionally in the first-class you have certain privileges which your higher fare ticket has given you. This nonsense of queuing up to show someone a piece of paper that allegedly confirms your identity makes no sense in a railway station since there is no security anyway. In Los Angeles anyone can walk up to track level and board the train without a ticket, so what is the point of an ID check in the station? I have never been asked to produce ID in large cities such as Seattle, Chicago, New York, Denver and never in small stations. The only exception has been in Buffalo's Depew station where the train conductor asked everyone to show her ID before boarding (and allowed the first class to board before the coach).
As for the diner, of course I wait my turn since the only first-class privilege is that the sleepers are given priority for reservations. As for the on-board washrooms, I only take bedrooms on superliners so that is not a problem. But again my complaint is the silly demand in some Amtrak stations for everyone to have an ID check when this is not universally applied. What kind of "security" is this. Obviously none at all. What does checking ID have to do with security anyway? A terrorist would have ID (as they certainly did on Sept. 11) so there is no reason to inconvenience people (of any class) in this manner.
Posts: 524 | From: Toronto Ont. Canada | Registered: Mar 2001
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Royal Train - I have absolutley no problem waiting in a line for sleeping car passengers so my ticket can be pulled and ID checked. Being a sleeping car passenger doesn't give us the right to say the procedures don't apply to me because I think they're dumb.
Amtrak should standardize procedures though so all terminals are the same. There should be two lines for check in as on the Vancouver Cascade - Business (or sleeper) and coach. It was painless and insured Business class boarded first. Same on a recent trip on the City of NO from New Orleans. That's what should be done at LAX. Standing in line for just an ID check is a little silly. The ticket should be pulled at the same time.
Let's not forget that if you were boarding the 20th Century Ltd. or the Super Chief 50 years ago, the Pullman Conductor would have checked you in at the gate too.
Posts: 2397 | From: Camden, SC | Registered: Mar 2006
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The last time we were at LAX there were two lines at the gate One was for coach and one for sleeping car passengers. That was in 1996 so maybe things have changed.
Posts: 1577 | From: virginia | Registered: Jun 2005
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Forgive the doubles but my post got awway from me before I could finish. I have ben riding the train for many years and I never was told that first class passengers have priority seating in the diner. While waiting in the lounge for a table to be freed in the dinwr I have never head the steward come out and say sleeping car passengers first. How can I have missed this? On the Capital we are always checked off on the list at the door of the car even though the attendent knows us and in Denver ditto. It's no big deal to us.
Posts: 1577 | From: virginia | Registered: Jun 2005
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The last two times we took the Starlate from LAX we came up from San Diego on an early Surfliner. When we arrived at LA to get on the 14 the Amtrak crew working in the area told us to wait there (at the next track over) so we did not have to go back in the station and wait in that awful line. They said we were welcome to wait trackside as long as we stayed out of the way of the carts driving by, etc. I thought it was funny because we were going to go back in the station (per the directions on the PA) but then when we asked the crew members what to do they said if you go in the station you will get stuck waiting in a big line so just hang out here and stay out of the way.
Posts: 45 | From: San Diego, CA | Registered: May 2002
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quote:Originally posted by RRRICH: Paul - your "trick" has usually worked for me at LAUS, however, now and then, as soon as you walk through those doors which lead to the track concourse, there may be someone there telling you to go back inside and get in line -- I guess it depends on what door you go out, what day of the week it is, and whether you can be "sneaky" and act "nonchalant" about it...
Let me add that your "trick" works much better in LAUS than say Chicago or PHL or NYP!!!
Doors? There are no doors in the tunnel under the tracks. They must have removed those when the Red Line subway came in, because I don't remember any doors. It's an open tunnel now. I've always lounged in the Metropolitan Lounge when at CHI, so I don't mind waiting Posts: 286 | From: Knee deep in the retention tank | Registered: Jan 2006
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Train Lady - I believe what Royal Train meant was that, during the afternoon, the dining car steward will walk through the train taking dinner reservations, but he will make reservations in the sleeping cars first for the meal times you want -- by the time he gets to the coaches, requested meal times may not always be available if the sleeper passengers have filled them already.
Paul - the "doors" I was talking about at LAUS are the "gates" BEFORE the walkway to the tunnel -- the gates at the east end of the station that tell what train is boarding through that gate. Typically they will not open the gates until they are ready to board, but it doesn't matter, because on the other side of the gates, it is a large open area anyway which leads to the tunnel and then to the ramps up to the tracks. I believe the large gate on the far right is the one which is typically open all the time (and available to walk through without standing in line, UNLESS, as I stated, there is someone there who tells you not to go there), although it has been a few years since I have been to LAUS.
But no -- the ramps up to the tracks (at the track end of the tunnel) do NOT have doors on them.
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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Just to clarify my remarks: RRRich was correct in what I meant as to dining car reservations i.e. that sleeping car passengers are the first to obtain reservations, not that they are given priority in the dining car. Although about eight years ago the sleeping car attendant in my car on the Texas Eagle escorted his passengers to the diner ahead of the coach passengers. I've never seen that happen before or since.
I don't take anything back about my comments regarding the ID check. There is no reason to stand in a line for a procedure that has nothing to do with providing security for the train.
Posts: 524 | From: Toronto Ont. Canada | Registered: Mar 2001
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Thanks, Rich. Now it makes sense to me. There also seems to be a lot of disparity in checking IDs. In DC we had to show picture ids before we could check our bags but not in Denver. In Alexandria, Va.We had to show the conductor ids at the door of the car even though the red cap knew us but we checked our bags throough without ids.Security is necessary these days but there definitely needs to be some unifornity.I have checked our bags through so many times the checkers know me by sight.Maybe that is why I don't need my id.
Posts: 1577 | From: virginia | Registered: Jun 2005
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Almost all the doors that used to separate the waiting room from the tunnel are gone. A couple remain for the line up for the LD trains. But with all the Metrolink traffic and the Gold Line, there is no way they can keep you from going down the tunnel and hanging out. There are a lot of people in LAUS during weekdays at just about any time. May get a little quieter when #4 leaves in the evening.
-------------------- Railrev Escondido, CA Posts: 99 | From: Escondido, California | Registered: Jul 2003
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